Just joined Gold myself. The equipment evaluation perk seems worth the price of admission at the Gold level. Doubt there are much cheaper or easier ways to try a lot of different lenses either just to learn about them or as an evaluation for a future purchase.

Well, I'll can only let you know if they send me some L lenses to test without having to jump through hoops. Do you think they will? Because the CPS Thailand page seems to missing any information about loaning gear for evaluation. I did send them an email asking if they loan gear. I'll keep you posted; every country has different conditions. And I bet they don't EMS L lenses and pro bodies about the place.

I "borrowed" a 1DMKIV, but the days include shipping both ways...so I had it for about 8 days total
Came with battery charger, two batteries, body and manuals and strap.
Really neat!!
No swag after first year intro...It appears that you got one of the CPS "neck" straps

Platinum is NOT Priority both ways, despite what it says on the member signup. It's Priority overnight TO CPS, but they changed it to "standard overnight" for return back to the user, however they haven't changed the website or notified Platinum members of this change via email. I found out only because I was expecting my camera by 11AM and it didn't show so I called to find out why it was shipped standard (based on tracking info)

A few things that I like about the Platinum (I was gold):

-60% Off repairs (paid for the membership alone when I would have had to pay $800 with Gold to have my 70-200 fixed)
-2 day in-house service. If I ship it Monday, assuming they don't have to wait for parts, I'll have my toys back on Friday
-Free shipping to/from. I was going to overnight my 70-200, but even economy was going to cost me $70 to ship to NJ from Chicago. So I dropped the $$$ on the Platinum and well, never looked back. Just in overnight shipping it's paid for itself many times over and I only upgraded in November.

Some annoyances came with my membership as well. I sent my 1Dx in for a lookover because it seemed like it was collecting a hell of a lot of dust in the 2 weeks I had it. Sent it out Monday and called Thursday and they said it was still in QA and didn't ship. Went through the process of getting a loaner sent to me and it showed up the next day along with MY 1Dx (which they didn't know actually did ship, someone didn't change the status!) Anyway, when they did ship me a loaner 1Dx, they shipped it without batteries and that was one of the reasons I shipped mine to them with both batteries, I was having power issues and ended up being a bad battery. So it sat on the table in the box until Monday when I shipped it back. Then a few days later I get a call from CPS saying I damaged their camera. What? They said the body was cracked. I told them it didn't go anywhere and asked where it was cracked. They said, "If you look INSIDE the battery compartment there was a crack in the body." I asked if it was visible from the outside because I took a picture for fun of my 1Dx and theirs next to eachother and they said no. So how was I to know it was cracked? Do I regularly look inside a battery compartment And they said it had to be me because I was the first one to ever get loaned this body. Well, after speaking with a supervisor, came to be the part would had been $150, or $60 after my discount. They said they would repair it at no cost to me. I'm still astonished they would think that I would look inside a battery compartment to check for damage. Why don't you talk to the FedEx people that LOVE playing football with out packages!

Other than that, the loaners are nice if they can't fix it in house in 2 days they will ship you a loaner. The evaluation equipment is nice, but only being able to use something 2x before being expected to purchase it has it's downfalls. But overall with everything they include for the price (especially with the Platinum) it's well worth the price if you are a total klutz like me. I can go for a year without a problem then in 2 days destroy 3 things at once...

jerrykur wrote:
As long as you pay the money and meet the equipment list requirements you are in.

FWIW, after the 1st year you usually do not get the swag. But you get the clean certs, all of the discounts, and priority on service.

You do get the swag however if you upgrade from Gold -> Platinum which includes some cool thinktank stuff... I love the laptop bag, perfect for my 14" laptop which I made HEAVY use out of during football season with the 1Dx as I would download to the laptop as I was shooting so I didn't have to download after the game #deadlinesaver

I'm CPS Gold, and it is certainly worthwhile. For me, a great value is the confidence I have buying used professional gear. In addition to the nice people selling here on FM, there always seems to be small matters that I like to have taken care of -- no disrespect to the sellers. I'm very happy for the great deals and know they would have stood behind the sales if there had been serious issues.

CPS gave me the confidence to buy a used 1Ds3 and 1D3, and in thoroughly evaluating them as I did the MFA for all my lenses, using real life targets in my world, I found both had occasional erratic AF tendencies in One Shot AF with center point. (In the past, before MFA, I would have just overlooked these inconsistencies, and carried on with a certain percent of unexplained OOF images.) I boxed them up with image examples on DVD and sent off to CPS. Both occasions the AF fix was no charge. I've had the 1Ds3 back for a couple weeks now and it is night and day difference. The 1D3 is there now and will be back in a a couple days, and I expect it to be perfect focus on the AF point. Their service is super fast!

I also packaged up my used 45 and 90 TS-E lenses to have the tilt axis changed and asked to switch the knobs and check the detent to make sure it is squared off to the sensor. First of all -- thanks Canon for these awesome TS-E lenses! And second, thanks for the complimentary service to get them switched over and looked over.

It's a huge relief knowing CPS is there if I run into trouble or want to try out a new piece of gear -- that's amazing support. I've certainly gotten my value out of the annual fee this year!

JimKarczewski wrote:
Platinum is NOT Priority both ways, despite what it says on the member signup. It's Priority overnight TO CPS, but they changed it to "standard overnight" for return back to the user, however they haven't changed the website or notified Platinum members of this change via email. I found out only because I was expecting my camera by 11AM and it didn't show so I called to find out why it was shipped standard (based on tracking info)

A few things that I like about the Platinum (I was gold):

-60% Off repairs (paid for the membership alone when I would have had to pay $800 with Gold to have my 70-200 fixed)
-2 day in-house service. If I ship it Monday, assuming they don't have to wait for parts, I'll have my toys back on Friday
-Free shipping to/from. I was going to overnight my 70-200, but even economy was going to cost me $70 to ship to NJ from Chicago. So I dropped the $$$ on the Platinum and well, never looked back. Just in overnight shipping it's paid for itself many times over and I only upgraded in November.

Some annoyances came with my membership as well. I sent my 1Dx in for a lookover because it seemed like it was collecting a hell of a lot of dust in the 2 weeks I had it. Sent it out Monday and called Thursday and they said it was still in QA and didn't ship. Went through the process of getting a loaner sent to me and it showed up the next day along with MY 1Dx (which they didn't know actually did ship, someone didn't change the status!) Anyway, when they did ship me a loaner 1Dx, they shipped it without batteries and that was one of the reasons I shipped mine to them with both batteries, I was having power issues and ended up being a bad battery. So it sat on the table in the box until Monday when I shipped it back. Then a few days later I get a call from CPS saying I damaged their camera. What? They said the body was cracked. I told them it didn't go anywhere and asked where it was cracked. They said, "If you look INSIDE the battery compartment there was a crack in the body." I asked if it was visible from the outside because I took a picture for fun of my 1Dx and theirs next to eachother and they said no. So how was I to know it was cracked? Do I regularly look inside a battery compartment And they said it had to be me because I was the first one to ever get loaned this body. Well, after speaking with a supervisor, came to be the part would had been $150, or $60 after my discount. They said they would repair it at no cost to me. I'm still astonished they would think that I would look inside a battery compartment to check for damage. Why don't you talk to the FedEx people that LOVE playing football with out packages!

Other than that, the loaners are nice if they can't fix it in house in 2 days they will ship you a loaner. The evaluation equipment is nice, but only being able to use something 2x before being expected to purchase it has it's downfalls. But overall with everything they include for the price (especially with the Platinum) it's well worth the price if you are a total klutz like me. I can go for a year without a problem then in 2 days destroy 3 things at once... ...Show more →

Sounds like my experience, sent my 1ds3 in for service (gold in my case) while looking for status, I found it was in for QA but it arrived the next day. I asked for shutter count, but had to call afterward to get it. The repair sheet that comes back is not very informative. They typically say they checked the AF and adjusted it. My question was if the sensor to mount was skewed, they said nothing. It was fixed however.

Well, I got the 1D3 and lenses back. All came back in those new individual silk bags -- very nice. The TS-E's were all rotated as asked and also look like they were cleaned and tightened. I like the method of tilt better now, but didn't realize the focus range indicator would be turned to the left side and the knobs basically on top of each other -- makes you appreciate the new TS-E 24 and 17 that much more.

The great news is the 1D3 was found to have a sub mirror problem leading to inaccurate AF. The sub mirror and stopper were replaced, the shutter adjusted, and everything checked and even sensor cleaned. Best of all -- it performs flawlessly in the limited testing I've done -- and seem much sharper. As the Brits say, it is now bang-on.